Like English, German also offers the possibility of combining of words, especially nouns.
The resulting noun chains in English typically feature spaces or hyphens between the different elements, while
German ones normally appear as one word.
The German penchant for creating complex compound nouns has long been the stuff of comedy.
Mark Twain devotes part of his essay on
The Awful German Language to these "curiosities,"
and many people are familiar with ones like "der Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän"
(the Danube Steamship Navigation Company Captain).

The basic German compound word, like its English relation, consists of two vocabulary items, although longer chains are possible. Take the example: "die Sprachschule."
The second element, "Schule", is called the "primary word" (das Grundwort), and it designates the larger set (in this case, schools)
of which the compound noun is a part.
It also establishes the gender and the plural form of the compound noun.
The first item "Sprach", is called the "determiner", or "determinative element" (das Bestimmungswort).
It designates the subset of the category that the primary word defines. Thus a "Sprachschule" is a school that teaches languages.

This list of provided cleaning services illustrates some of the possibilities that employ the primary word, Reinigung ("cleaning"):

Cleaning of business and medical offices
Glass surface cleaning
Housecleaning
Staircase cleaning
Thorough cleaning
Janitorial cleaning
Doormat service
Building site clearance and final cleaning
Carpet and textile cleaning

As some of the above examples show, the two parts of the compound may also have a connecting element (die Fuge) that can have various forms:

All the best with a cold
• With throat-, head-, and joint-pains
• With sniffles
• Alleviates throat-tickle
• With an extra portion of vitamin C
Two capsules 3 times a day at the first sign of a cold

Part- and whole-body massages
Neck-, shoulder-, and back-massages

Hyphens are also used when a series of compounds share a "primary word".
Thus in the advertisement on the right, for cold medicine, "Halsschmerzen," "Kopfschmerzen," and
"Gliederschmerzen" are compressed to "Hals-, Kopf- und Gliederschmerzen".
On the left, the primary word is first "massages," then "body-massages," with the
determiners "part" and "full";
in the next line, the primary word is again
"massages," while the determiners are "neck," "shoulder," and "back"

Sometimes, perhaps due to the influence of English, some constellations are even written as separate words:

"die Monster Laufzeit" (monstrous contract period)

Mobile internet without a monstrous contract period.

The previous examples of compound nouns are derived from other nouns.
But the "determinative element" can also be a verb, which is represented by the stem:

The "determinative element" can also be an adjective or adverb. One could make the case that some of these "determiners"
fall into the category of separable prefix,
at least when the "primary word," though a noun, derives from a verb. The effect is the same either way.

Some "determiners" appear so frequently that they have become a standard prefix.
A word like "das Haupt," for example, an older term for head (and largely replaced in modern usage by "der Kopf"),
appears in a great many well-established compounds, as well as in more spontaneous coinages.
It means "central," "chief," "main," "primary," or "principal".
Just a few examples:

Mark Twain is not the only person to find whimsical possibilities in complex compounds.
There is a long tradition of constructing nouns like
"die Hottentottenpotentatentantenattentäterin" (the Hottentot potentate's aunt's [female] assassin) or
other humorous combinations:

The all-round-feel-good cough-drop

We wash washmachine water [ad by the Berlin Waterworks].

A more recent phenomenon is the "Weichei"-definition. A "Weichei" is a wimp or wussie, the opposite of a "real man."
Some of the many definitions, which combine noun-compounds with the masculine suffix "-er":

der Cabrio-geschlossen-Fahrer = a man who drives a convertible with the top up

der Chef-Witz-Lacher = a man who laughs at the boss's jokes

der Eincremer = a man who uses skin lotion

der Festnetztelefonierer = a man who telephones using a land-line

der Frauenversteher = a man who understands women

der Geheimzahl-Aufschreiber = a man who writes down a PIN

der Handschuhträger = a glove-wearer

der Kassenzettel-Nachprüfer = a man who checks the cash-register receipt

der Klamotten-am-Vorabend-Ausleger = a man who lays out his clothes the night before

der Landungsklatscher = a man who applauds when the plane lands

der Mittelspurfahrer = a man who drives in the middle lane

der Quotenopfer = a (self-proclaimed) victim of quotas

der Rechts-Links-Wangen-Bussi-Geber = a right-left-cheek peck-giver

der Schattenparker = a man who parks in the shade

der Sitzpinkler = a man who sits to pee

der Sockenfalter = a man who folds his socks

der Tastaturabdecker = a man who covers the keyborad

der Unterhosenbügler = a man who irons his underpants

der Vorwärtseinparker = a man who drive forwards into a parallel parking space

der Warmduscher = a man who takes warm showers

der Weinschorle-Trinker = a man who drinks wine-spritzers

More important are the complex meanings that can be compressed within compounds, constructions that are very hard to translate.
Here is an example of one such possibility:

Trittbrett (running-board)

In Hans-Ulrich Treichel's novel Tristanakkord (Suhrkamp, 2000),
the protagonist is, in a small way, about to assist a famous musician in composing a work.
In contemplating the fame that he will achieve, he refers to it as "eine Trittbrettunsterblichkeit" (p. 212). This coinage is made up of six separate elements:
"der Tritt" (step) and "das Brett" (board) combine to fashion "das Trittbrett" (running-board,
the foot-board that runs along the side of certain trucks and antique automobiles).
German usage has given this word a metaphorical connotation: "hanging on" or "freeloading," especially in the term of "Trittbrettfahrer" (literally: running board rider).
To "Trittbrett" the author adds "Unsterblichkeit" (immortality). That term is derived from "sterben" (to die);
by adding the suffix "-lich" to the stem "sterb-", we get the adjective "sterblich" (mortal).
To that comes the suffix "-keit", forming the noun "Sterblichkeit" (mortality).
The prefix "un-", just as in English, produces the opposite meaning (immortality).
Finally, the author combines "Trittbrett" and "Unsterblichkeit" to create a spontaneous coinage that will appear in no dictionary but is comprehensible to all:
"Trittbrettunsterblichkeit" is an immortality that is achieved by riding in someone's wake (or on someone's coattails).
The English translation necessarily lacks both the compactness - and the humor - of the German original.

Floor-sander rentals

Portmanteau Words (Kofferwörter or Schachtelwörter)

German also uses portmanteau words, which blend two words and combine their meanings.
Often these constructions are borrowed wholesale from English, e.g. "brunch", "motel", "smog", "brexit",
but others are of German origin: